14 DAY TRIAL // Officially announced by Sony Ericsson on February 10, during MWC 2008, the high-end Xperia X1 has become the dream-phone of many SE fans and many mobile enthusiasts in general. Xperia X1 is presented as a super handset, bringing a 3-inch VGA display, a full sliding QWERTY keyboard and the most advanced multimedia, Web and communication capabilities, all packed in an elegantly designed device.
The Swedish-Japanese joint venture stated in a press release that X1 will be commercially available starting the second half of 2008, but recent rumors come to contradict this. The SEMC blog, dedicated to Sony Ericsson's products, posted a table showing the release dates of the future SE handsets and, according to this table, Xperia X1 will hit the market on the 10th February 2009, after exactly one year since its announcement.
I guess that, if this turns out to be true, it will be one of the year's most unpleasant news for SE's fans. The main reason for the handset's holdup might be the delay of Windows Mobile 6.1, the OS powering Xperia X1. Microsoft should have launched Windows Mobile 6.1 during MWC 2008 (11 - 14 February), but for some reasons it postponed the release for an unannounced date. So, is it Microsoft's fault after all? Could be.
However, even if Windows Mobile 6.1 will come soon - meaning sooner than the end of 2008 - there might still be (unknown) reasons for which Sony Ericsson could postpone the release of Xperia X1. It's not the first time when Sony Ericsson (or other important manufacturers for that matter) delays the release of a phone that many users are waiting for. Anyway, let's hope the delay is only a rumor or a "misleading information" and Xperia X1 will come in 2008. Even if it will be at the end of the year, it's still better than in 2009.